Social Participation as a Tool for Managing Functional and Spatial Changes. Examples of Selected Centres of Small and Medium-Sized Towns in Poland (original) (raw)

The use of participatory tools is a new and difficult challenge for Polish local governments. It results from the lack of social participation in public life, which is largely due to the Polish post-war history. For several dozen years, the citizens could not engage in governing, the government setting the course of spatial and development policies. After 1990, the reactivated local governments empowered local communities. This phase of decentralization proved to be an important moment in the division of powers between the central and the local level. After more than 20 years, both local authorities and municipal communities have proceeded to the next stage – testing models of co-governing (governance). At the heart of these models is the active participation of society in decision-making, aiming to better meet the needs of the community. Both the society and the authorities must therefore find ways to meet this new challenge. However, the operations of the local authorities show di...